Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Big Clock Blu-ray Movie Review

Screwball noir?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 6, 2019

There are probably two no more disparate genres in the movie world than film noir and screwball comedy, which may be one reason why it’s so surprising to hear both analyst Adrian Wootton and commentator Adrian Martin make rather cogent cases that The Big Clock has elements of both styles, in some fascinating content that is included on this new Blu-ray disc as supplementary material. As I’ve readily confessed in a number of reviews, including our Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts Blu-ray review, I grew up somewhat obsessed with Time-Life products, especially their book (and later record and CD) series. The Big Clock kind of mercilessly skewers the Time-Life empire, especially as it may have been perceived in its post-World War II glory, with a focus on a publishing conglomeration obviously modeled on the iconic organization put together by Henry C. Luce, who in this version is a tic filled martinet named Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton). Janoth presides over a company with a number of different publications, including Crimeways, a magazine which counts George Stroud (Ray Milland) among its many employees. The film begins with a panicked Stroud obviously attempting not to attract notice in the Janoth offices, in what is evidently some kind of manhunt. Stroud’s brief voiceover alerts the viewer to the fact that a mere day or so before the events being depicted, Stroud was leading a life of relative calm and order. The film then segues back to reveal what has happened in the interim.

Part of that erstwhile “normal” life Stroud has evidently abandoned includes wife Georgette (Maureen O’Sullivan, real life wife of director John Farrow) and a cute son. Commentator Martin gets into one of the cheeky elements of John Fearing’s source novel, namely that all of the Strouds had some form of “George” in their given monikers, which Martin takes to mean as a telling indictment of post-World War II conformity in Fearing’s original conception, and indeed there’s a noticeable subtext here of not just George, but several other folks, being cogs in Janoth’s particular wheel. This is made clear in the staff meeting which introduces Janoth in the film, one where a bunch of frightened toadies tries to anticipate any given whim their boss may have, and who flutter about him like so many nervous moths drawn to a perilous flame.

Janoth is a heel and a cad, that much is more than evident, and that includes his callous treatment of his mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson). Janoth is also not particularly pleased when George seems to put family above his career, and Janoth ends up firing him. That leads to a "meet cute" between George and Pauline which ends up having devastating effects when Janoth later murders her in a jealous rage. Unfortunately for George, Janoth knows someone spied Janoth entering Pauline's apartment the night of the murder, and he unctuously rehires George to find out who that was, in an obvious attempt to prevent any undue disclosure of information. Of course, it was George who was leaving Pauline's place, and so George is in a rather sticky predicament, supposedly on the hunt for a mystery man who is in fact himself. It's a really interesting premise, and one that easily could have been played as a straight (or at least straighter) noir offering (as it arguably was in its famous remake, No Way Out). But screenwriter Jonathan Latimer and director Farrow invest the film with a surprisingly wacky sense of humor at times, including with a fun semi- cameo by one of the "other" real life spouses in the film, Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester, who portrays a daffy modern artist type.

There are a number of fun supporting turns in this film aside from Lanchester’s memorable performance, including the always sinister seeming George Macready as Janoth’s right hand henchman Steve Hagen (commentator Martin makes the case for a rather potent homoerotic subtext in this film). Farrow directs with a lot of style (listen to Martin’s commentary for some amazing information on the elevator sequence, just one example of Farrow’s incredible production expertise), and the film is surprisingly bracing despite its wide tonal variances.

The Big Clock Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Big Clock is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. Arrow's insert booklet provides only the following fairly generic verbiage about the transfer:

The Big Clock is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 [sic] with 1.0 mono audio. The master was prepared in High Definition by Universal Pictures and delivered to Arrow Films.

I wavered a bit in how to properly score this release, but opted for a 3.0 in order to properly temper expectations. This looks like it was sourced from some kind of secondary element, as can perhaps be made out in the screenshots, which show a pretty gritty grain field and somewhat uneven contrast. Those two things said, this film has an almost insane number of optical dissolves (and dissolves within dissolves, as in an opening sequence which I assume also featured a traveling matte), so some of the grittiness and lack of clarity is probably to be expected. But there are times when things can look fairly rough here, as in an early office scene where George is in front of ridged frosted glass and it looks like it's covered with swarming insects. There are a number of small but recurrent issues with regard to damage, including nicks, speckling, white flecks and a number of small, intermittent scratches which tend to occur toward the middle of the frame (see screenshot 19 — you may have to really look, but you'll be able to see two parallel scratches pretty much right smack dab in the middle). There's also fairly prevalent flicker noticeable, especially in the many darker sequences (and especially especially in the darker moments that feature opticals). Everything said, this is certainly watchable, if a bit on the rough side at times, and there are a number of moments, especially in close-ups, where detail levels are excellent (screenshot 5 is a good example).

The Big Clock Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Big Clock features a serviceable sounding LPCM Mono track which can't quite escape the boxiness of its period of production, but which doesn't exhibit any of the more problematic analagous elements in the video presentation. There's pretty noticeable background hiss here, but that's about it in terms of anything that audiophiles might have an issue with. Victor Young's score sounds full bodied, and dialogue is always presented cleanly and clearly. I'm not quite sure why, but twice in restarting this (to either watch with a commentary or check various moments), I got a tiny audio "pop" right before the Universal masthead. It didn't happen every time, but I'm reporting it here in case anyone else experiences it.

The Big Clock Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Adrian Martin


• Turning Back the Clock (1080p; 23:01) is an interesting appreciation and analysis by another Adrian, Adrian Wootton, an executive with Film London.


• A Difficult Actor (1080p; 17:31) is a wonderful piece on Charles Laughton by Simon Callow, who is previously on record with some appreciative comments about this film.


• Lux Radio Theater: The Big Clock (1080p; 59:28) is a 1948 radio broadcast starring Ray Milland. This plays to stills from the film.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:21)


• Image Gallery

  Posters and Press (1080p)

  
  

  Production Stills (1080p)

As usual, Arrow has also provided a nicely appointed insert booklet.

The Big Clock Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A bit of cursory Googling brought up a number of interesting entries when using the search query "screwball noir", but if you want a prime example of this fanciful "combo platter" of genres, look no further than The Big Clock. Expertly crafted and rather energetically performed, The Big Clock manages to generate both excitement and some actually goofy laughs. Video is a bit iffy, but audio is generally fine, and as usual with Arrow releases, the supplements are aces. Recommended.